Find books by and about Ernest Hemingway
and visit the Regional History Department’s
Hemingway collection. (208) 726-3493
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Located in the Ketchum Forest Service Park, the
River
Wood
museum contains exhibits
ski River
Runon local history,
Trails
Plaza
Bike
Path
heritage, and a dedicated “Hemingway in Idaho”
exhibit. (208) 726-8118
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Christiana Restaurant
Hemingway had dinner here with his wife, Mary,
on July 1, 1961 the night before his death.
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Ketchum Korral
Originally named the MacDonald Cabins,
Hemingway first stayed here in 1946.
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The Sun Valley Museum of History
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(Start tour here!)
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This drinking establishment
has undergone few changes
B Hemingway’s visits.
since
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Casino Bar
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These restaurants and bars on the
former site of the Alpine Club and
Café, offered slot machine gambling
while it was still legal in Ketchum.
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Sawtooth Club, Whiskey Jacques
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Sun Valley Resort
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Edges”
“Hemingway at the
September 10-12 at
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The Community Libra
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Trail Creek
Cabin
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Ernest Hemingway’s grave
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be found centrally located, R I N G
under large evergreen trees,
with family and friends buried
around him.
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Lodge Room #206, the Ram Bar,
Duchin Room, and Trail Creek
Cabin all have Hemingway
connections. (208) 622-4111
SUN VALLEY
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Ernest Hemingway
Festival 2015
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A sculpture of Hemingway
overlooks Trail Creek, 1.5 miles
from SV Lodge.
Ketchum Cemetery
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For more information on the activities available
in the area, visit the Visitor Information Center
or call (208) 726-3423.
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Hemingway Memorial
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Hunting—He loved bird hunting in the fall
season.
Shooting—Trap and Skeet shooting are still
available at the Sun Valley Gun Club.
Fishing—Fishing was his favorite sport, but
it was his son, Jack, who was instrumental
in protecting the Silver Creek preserve, the
place his father first introduced him to local
trout fishing.
Tennis—He and Martha Gellhorn played
doubles with Gary and Rocky Cooper.
Canoeing—Hunting at Silver Creek often
required some paddling.
Writing—The valley is still an inspirational
place for great writers. The Sun Valley Writers
Conference hosts writers from around the
globe each year and the Community Library
holds frequent literary programs in their
lecture room.
Wining & Dining—Sun Valley offers a vibrant
foodie culture.
The Community Library
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Many things which attracted Ernest
Hemingway to the Wood River Valley in the
mid-20th century are still available today,
including:
To Hailey,
Bellevue,
Silver Creek
Silver Creek Preserve
(25 miles south)
One of Hemingway’s favorite places, the preserve is
open to the public for fishing, picnics, and nature walks.
Operated by The Nature Conservancy, there is a visitor
center and a Hemingway Memorial. (208) 788-2203
If you would like to learn more about
Ernest Hemingway’s life and writings,
especially during his time in Idaho, please
visit the Sun Valley Museum of History
and The Community Library in Ketchum,
Idaho.
Here are some of the many great resources you
will find:
Ernest Hemingway in Idaho: A Guide
by Marsha Bellevance is short booklet
containing a concise biography, chronology,
map, and sketches of his favorite places.
Hemingway in the Autumn by David
Butterfield features interviews with scholars,
several of Ernest’s Idaho friends, and his son
Jack Hemingway.
Misadventures of a Fly Fisherman: My Life
With and Without Papa by Jack Hemingway is
an intimate look inside the Hemingway family.
Hemingway: The Final Years by Michael
Reynolds is the fifth volume of a comprehensive
Hemingway biography, which encompasses the
Idaho years.
High on the Wild by Lloyd Arnold
How It Was by Mary Hemingway
Special Thanks to:
Marsha Bellevance, original text
Evelyn Phillips, map
The John F. Kennedy Library, photo
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899,
in Oak Park, Illinois. As a child, he learned to fish, shoot,
hunt, and camp and loved to read and write. Instead of
going to college, he volunteered for World War I and was
wounded in Italy. After the war, he wrote two best selling
novels, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, using a
new modern writing style.
Union Pacific’s marketing team invited Hemingway,
a now famous writer and well-known celebrity, to visit their
new Sun Valley Resort near Ketchum, Idaho. In September
of 1939, Hemingway arrived, accompanied by Martha
Gellhorn, his soon-to-be third wife. They stayed in Sun
Valley Lodge suite 206 where he worked on finishing his
great Spanish Civil War novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
He worked in the mornings, hunted in the afternoons, and
enjoyed gambling in the bars in the evenings. Hemingway
quickly made friends; and when one was accidentally killed
in a hunting accident, he read a eulogy containing the
now famous line “...best of all he loved the fall...”, which
is inscribed on the Hemingway Memorial. Hemingway
returned to Idaho in the fall of 1940 and 1941, bringing his
sons along for the visit.
After World War II, Hemingway came back to
Idaho with his fourth wife, Mary Welsh. The Lodge was
closed at the time, so they stayed at MacDonald’s Cabins
(now known as The Ketchum Korral). He was interviewed
there, in 1947, by Lillian Ross for the New Yorker Magazine.
After mornings of writing, his afternoons were often spent
hunting birds at Silver Creek.
Although Hemingway lived in Cuba, he traveled
often. During a safari in Africa, he was severly injured in
two plane crashes. In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize in
literature for his novel, The Old Man and the Sea.
When he returned to Idaho in 1958, he was
concerned about the political situation in Cuba and
was seeking a drier climate for relocating much of his
collecitons from humid Cuba. Ernest and Mary purchased
a home in Ketchum in 1959. There he worked at a
standing desk on the posthumously published works, A
Moveable Feast, The Dangerous Summer, and Islands in
the Stream. He died in his Ketchum home on July 2, 1961,
from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is buried in the
Ketchum Cemetery.
Ernest
Hemingway
in Idaho
A Tour of
Ketchum & Sun Valley
Presented by